When we last left our heroes they were on the road home. We had barely made it 20 miles to the interstate highway when the car started running very hot. I pulled into a station that had a cover to keep us out of the sun and we started looking for the problem. We found a loose fan belt that had run out of adjustment. A quick trip to a nearby parts house and we had a new shorter belt. About an hour later we were back on the road again.

I was confident that the belt would fix the problem, but no such luck. Twenty miles later and the car was approaching 250 degrees. I pulled off the interstate and parked under a bridge. I decided that maybe the air was going over the radiator and used an old tarp and duck tape to whip up a temporary air dam. Another hour later the engine was cooler and the "finely crafted" air dam was finished. No go though, as I approached Pensacola, FL, the car was bumping 250 again.

I bailed off the highway and of course my son, who was following in the pickup, missed my turn off. I pulled behind a store under some shade trees while he worked his way back to me. The real shock came when I raised the hood and found a hose on fire slowly burning it's way like a fuse toward the carb!!! The hose was stuck tight and couldn't just be pulled off so I quickly pulled out my pocket knife and cut the burning hose off and threw it on the ground. Seems that the carb vent hose that had once been connected to a missing charcoal canister had fallen against the exhaust manifold which had been hot enough to set it on fire. With that disaster averted, I started trying once again to solve the heating problem.